Rambo The Road Hog Won`t End Up As Bacon

It was almost like the movies: Our hero Rambo-in this case the hog-got out of danger just in the nick of time.

Rambo, the adopted name of the 500-pound runaway, led police on an hourlong chase Friday morning up and down the Calumet Expressway.

But no one ever claimed Rambo, and on Wednesday the boar seemed destined for the meat market.

The Calumet City animal shelter had kept the hog until the Illinois State Police gave it to a children`s farm in Palos Park.

But the farm, operated by the nonprofit Community Center Foundation at 127th Street and Southwest Expressway, had no room for Rambo. And besides, the operation is a working farm.

``Most of the animals we have eventually go to market; I told the police that,`` said Kay Ardizzone, the farm`s educational director.

So Rambo`s next stop would have been the slaughterhouse. Within days, the porker would have been pork chops and bacon bits, and the farm would be nearly $250 richer.

But Robert and Barbara Urbanski, who operate a Calumet City pet shop, joined forces with a friend, Greg La Pappa, to save the endangered hog.

``We knew if we didn`t get Rambo today, he might be gone tomorrow,`` Mrs. Urbanski said. ``Besides, we wanted to introduce him to Tiffany Marie, at least for a day.`` Tiffany Marie is the Urbanskis` housebroken pet pig.

The Urbanskis had offered to take care of Rambo if he was not claimed, but as it turned out, they don`t need to. Instead, the Lambs Farm in Libertyville has agreed to give Rambo a home.

``We talked to the (children`s) farm people,`` Mrs. Urbanski said, ``and told them we would make a donation to them if we could save Rambo.`` She did not say whether that donation would equal the $250 the farm could have made by selling the hog for slaughter.

Rambo spent Wednesday night at The Center, a children`s farm in Palos Park, said La Pappa. On Thursday, he will be taken to the Lambs Farm, where he`ll be just another animal, not just another potential meal.

``We`ve already got two little pigs here, and if there isn`t enough room, we`ll move them to make room for Rambo,`` said Laura Spencer, supervisor of the Lambs Farm Pet Shop.

State Police Capt. Michael Burke said he tried for two days to find the boar`s owner.